


Tomorrow, We'll Do It Again

by aardvark_french



Category: My Chemical Romance
Genre: 5+1 Things, Angst, Bullets Era (My Chemical Romance), Bullets Era Gerard Way, Frank Iero Is A Sweetheart, Gen, Minor Frank Iero/Gerard Way, Revenge Era Frank Iero, Revenge Era Gerard Way, Short & Sweet, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:54:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27931069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aardvark_french/pseuds/aardvark_french
Summary: Five times Drowning Lessons was cursed (and one time it wasn't).
Relationships: Frank Iero/Gerard Way
Kudos: 24





	1. Chapter 1

“How are we doing tonight, everybody?” Gerard shouted into the microphone. 

Gerard struck a pose, hoping to bask in the adoration of the crowd for a few moments, but most people simply walked on by. Gerard glanced back at Frank, and like Gerard, he looked disappointed with how the show was going so far. Then again, maybe that was what they got for booking a show at the local theme park, where people couldn’t care less about their blistering rendition of Headfirst For Halos.

“It’s going to be okay, Gee,” Frank whispered to him as Ray tuned his guitar and Mikey blankly looked out at the passersby. “We’ll turn this around.” 

Gerard smiled slightly, hoping that Frank was right. “We’ve got a new one for you guys, and it’s from our debut album I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love,” he said into the microphone. “It’s called Drowning Lessons.” 

The rest of the band began to play, but Gerard immediately noticed that something was off. They were all at different parts of the song: Frank and Ray had started at the beginning, as they were supposed to, but Matt was playing the chorus, and Mikey was playing the bridge. With Matt and Mikey playing the wrong sections, and Frank’s guitar still in the wrong key, it sounded nothing like Drowning Lessons. It was a cacophonous mess. 

Gerard took a deep breath and started to sing, hoping that the others would get back on track. “Without a sound, I took her down…” 

It was then that he realized his mistake. 

He’d come in three bars late. 

“Fuck!” Gerard shouted, causing him to become even more out of sync with the others. He started singing again, but it was too late. The song had already fallen apart. 

Mikey was the first to finish, much to his confusion, so he started playing random notes in the outro, which only made things worse. The others tried to fix things too: Frank attempted to re-tune his guitar in the middle of the song, while Matt drummed faster and faster, hoping to get this song over with. Gerard, for his part, just screamed over the top of the rest of the band. _Maybe if they can’t hear the instrumentals, they won’t notice that we can’t play this song,_ he thought to himself. 

They played the last chord, and finally, the song (if you could call it that) was over. Gerard wished he had a time machine, just so that he could go back in time and erase the last four minutes of his life. He looked back at the rest of the band, and they were all just as embarrassed about their performance as he was. Gerard was half-tempted to stop the show right there, cut their losses, and go home. 

Gerard’s hazel eyes met Frank’s, and in an instant, he knew what he had to do. 

“THIS SONG IS ABOUT SUCKING DICK FOR COCAINE!” he screamed into the microphone, but nobody seemed to notice or care. 

Maybe it was for the best. 

Honey, This Mirror Isn’t Big Enough For The Two Us went quite smoothly, as did the rest of the set. Before long, they were packing up their instruments and equipment, ready to head home and get some rest. They were playing another show tomorrow, after all. 

“So about Drowning Lessons…” Frank said to the rest of the group before they went their separate ways. 

“I think we need more practice before we can play that song live again,” Ray said. 

“Yeah, more practice sounds good,” Gerard said. 

“Does tomorrow morning work for everyone?” Matt asked. 

“My D&D group meets tomorrow morning,” Gerard said. 

“Come on. You can skip D&D for this.” 

“Actually, I can’t. We’re fighting the Black Dragon, and we can’t do that without everyone there.” 

“Let him go to D&D, Matt,” Frank said. “We can practice another time.” 

“What about the show tomorrow?” 

“We’ll just take Drowning Lessons off the setlist, and replace it with...is everyone okay with playing It’s Not A Fashion Statement, It’s A Fucking Deathwish instead?” 

“Deathwish is hard,” Gerard complained, but he nodded anyway. It was certainly better than playing Drowning Lessons again. 

“How about Tuesday next week?” Mikey said. “Can we rehearse then?” 

Everyone agreed to rehearse on Tuesday, and before long, everyone except for Frank and Gerard left the venue. “Thanks for standing up for me,” Gerard said to him. 

“Anything for you, Gee,” Frank said. “Listen, I’m sorry about Drowning Lessons. I should have tuned my guitar before the song started, but I was kind of distracted…” 

Gerard looked around to make sure that nobody was watching and then gave him a quick kiss. “It’s not your fault, Frank,” Gerard said as he embraced his boyfriend. “We just need to practice it more.” 

“I hope you’re right,” Frank said. 

Gerard didn’t respond, but he knew he was right. All they needed was some time to polish up the song. Next they played it live, it would be perfect.


	2. Chapter 2

“Well, are you ready, Ray?” Gerard asked as he held onto the microphone and looked out over the crowd at the tiny nightclub in New Jersey where they were playing. 

“Yeah,” Ray said, but he still seemed nervous. 

Several months had passed since they’d last played Drowning Lessons. They’d spent their days practicing until they couldn’t take it anymore, until their fingers bled, until Gerard’s voice gave out. They could play this song in their sleep. There was no reason why they couldn’t do it here and now.

The show was going well so far, but Gerard had a feeling that this wouldn’t last forever. 

After all, it was March 22, 2003. In another ten years, My Chemical Romance wouldn’t even exist.

Ray, Frank, Mikey, and Matt all began to play, and this time, they all started at the beginning, together. Gerard smiled - already, this was going better than last time. He listened for his cue, and when it was time to come in, he sang, “Without a sound, I took her down…” 

So far, so good. 

Soon, Gerard was lost in the music, listening to the beat of the drums, the pounding notes of the bass, the beautiful melodies of the guitar. He sang and screamed along, but every so often, he worried that it would all fall apart, just like it had at the theme park. If it did, it would be worse this time. They had a real audience now, fans who had paid money to see them. 

Only a year ago, Frank had been one of them. 

Gerard smiled and turned to Frank as he sang, “I never thought it'd be this way, just me and you, we're here alone. And if you say, all I'm asking for is…” 

All of a sudden, there was a deafening crash. 

“Shit, is everything okay back there?” Gerard asked as he turned backwards to see what was going on. 

“Yeah, I think so,” Matt muttered as he reached down to pick up the cymbal that had fallen off of his drum set. Frank sprinted to the back of the stage to help him, but the cymbal had a huge crack running from the edge almost to the center. Ray and Mikey kept playing in an attempt to entertain the crowd, but Gerard had no idea how they were going to finish the show. 

Once he’d re-attached the cymbal, Matt hit it once, but it sounded flat, lifeless. Gerard started singing from where he’d left off, hoping that the audience wouldn’t notice, but the cymbal breaking seemed to have killed whatever momentum they’d had from the beginning of the show. As they continued to play, the fans looked increasingly bored, as if they were simply waiting for the next act to start. No matter what Gerard did, he couldn’t win back the crowd. 

After the show was finally over, Matt complained to Ray about having to replace the cymbal, while Gerard poured himself some vodka, hoping to forget about all of this. “Maybe we should just stop playing Drowning Lessons,” he said to Frank and Mikey. “It’s clear we’re never going to get it right.” 

“I don’t know,” Mikey said. “I think it’s a good song.” 

“Not when we play it live!” 

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much, Gee,” Frank said. “Matt’s cymbal cracking was just a freak accident. It won’t happen again.” 

As usual, Frank was right. It was just a coincidence that Matt’s cymbal broke during Drowning Lessons. There was nothing wrong with the song itself. They’d play it again sometime, and everything would be fine. This wouldn’t happen again.


	3. Chapter 3

“SACRAMENTO!” Gerard screamed into the microphone. “We’ve got two more songs left for you, and the first one’s called Drowning Lessons!” 

The fans in the crowd cheered as the band began to play. My Chemical Romance had been on tour for the better part of a year, and so far, it had been a whirlwind. Every night, they were in a new city, playing in a new venue to a new crowd. The only constants in Gerard’s life were his comic book collection and his bandmates. 

He turned toward Frank moments before it was time for him to start singing, hoping that this would go better than the last two times they’d played this song. However, as soon as he looked into Frank’s eyes, he knew that everything would be okay. They could do this. 

“Without a sound, I took her down…” 

He started out nervous, but as the song continued, Gerard grew more and more confident. By the time he got to the third verse, he was running into the crowd, screaming the lyrics to the song as overzealous fans surrounded him. 

Yet, something seemed off. 

Gerard looked back toward the stage, where Frank was jumping around wildly, but he couldn’t hear the bass at all. Mikey was stone-faced as usual, playing his bass as if nothing was wrong. Gerard knew that he had to get his brother’s attention somehow, while still keeping the crowd entertained. 

“And I’ll keep on making more, just to prove that I adore my little brother Mikey…”

The lyrical change seemed to have gotten his attention. Mikey immediately looked toward Gerard and mumbled, “The bass amp isn’t working.” 

There wasn’t much he could do about it now. Gerard kept on singing, certain that they could at least make it to the end of the song. It wouldn’t sound great without Mikey, but this wasn’t a complete disaster yet. 

That was when both of the guitar amps broke. 

It was just Matt and Gerard now. Gerard retreated to the stage as he sang along to the beat of the drum, but it didn’t sound right without the guitars and bass. Yet, Gerard gave it his all. The show had to go on. 

As Gerard finished off the song, Ray ran offstage to look for the guitar tech. Even she couldn’t figure out what exactly had gone wrong with the amps, but she did manage to fix them well enough for them to finish the show. As the band started to play Demolition Lovers, Gerard panicked. It felt like they’d never get Drowning Lessons right, no matter what they did. 

When the show was over, as he packed up his guitar, Frank said, “I think Drowning Lessons is cursed.” 

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Ray said. “A song can’t be cursed.” 

“Something’s gone wrong every time we’ve played that song,” Frank said. “First it was all of us starting in the wrong place, then it was Matt’s cymbal breaking, then all of the amps went out at the same time. It has to be cursed.” 

“Those were just coincidences.” 

“No, I think Frank’s right,” Gerard said. “Those were more than just coincidences.” 

Ray still wasn’t convinced. “Let’s play it one more time before we jump to conclusions,” he said. “If we play it again, and something goes wrong, I think we can say it’s cursed.” 

“That seems fair to me,” Frank said. 

“What if something goes _really_ wrong?” Mikey asked. “Like, what if someone dies just because we played Drowning Lessons?” 

“Come on, Mikey,” Ray said. “I expect this sort of stuff from Frank and your brother, but I thought you’d have a little bit more sense. Nothing’s going to happen.” 

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Frank said. 

Gerard wasn’t quite sure what to think. Curse or no curse, it would probably be a while before they played the song live again. They’d just have to wait and see what happened next time they played Drowning Lessons.


	4. Chapter 4

“We’re about to play a song, that we never play live, that we just started playing on this tour,” Gerard said as he looked out over the crowd. It was mostly college students this time around, and after blasting through five of MCR’s biggest hits - if you could call them that - the energy in the room was high. “It’s called Drowning Lessons.” 

The band began to play, but Gerard was terrified, and he was sure that the others were too. After three disastrous performances, he was sure something would go wrong. It was only a matter of time. 

“Without a sound, I took her down…” 

To Gerard’s surprise, the band sounded better than ever. Matt’s drums and Mikey’s bass were exactly in rhythm, and Frank and Ray’s guitar playing was nothing short of magnificent. Gerard sang along, letting his voice blend with the rest of the band, and soon, it was perfect. As Frank jumped around the stage, wildly strumming on his guitar the whole time, Gerard ran into the crowd again, screaming the lyrics at the top of his lungs. 

In all his life, he’d never felt so alive. 

It wasn’t until after they’d played the last chord that Gerard realized what a miracle this was. They’d never managed to pull off a competent live performance of Drowning Lessons, much less one as perfect as this. 

Gerard grinned as they launched right into This Is The Best Day Ever. They soon finished off the set - the rest of the show went well, but they couldn’t quite recapture the magic of Drowning Lessons. Even Deathwish seemed a little lackluster after a song like that. 

As they packed up their equipment, Gerard said to Frank, “You sounded amazing out there,” which, to him, was the understatement of the year. Even after being his bandmate for over a year, Frank’s guitar playing never failed to impress him. 

“No, you were better,” Frank said. “I still can’t believe that we made it through Drowning Lessons though.” 

“Me neither. We should play it more often.” 

“Definitely.” 

There was a moment of sweet silence, and then Gerard asked, “Do you want to come over to my place? Maybe we can...you know...” 

Frank immediately knew what Gerard meant. “I’d love to,” he said. Then, he winked, causing Gerard to blush furiously. He’d thought that this night couldn’t get any better, but somehow, it had. 

Frank quickly finished packing up his guitar and then climbed into the passenger seat of Gerard’s car. They chatted and sang along to all their favorite songs on the way home, and when they finally arrived, Gerard put on Frank’s favorite movie, collapsed onto the couch next to him, and gave him a long, passionate kiss. 

Frank was just about to unzip Gerard’s leather jacket when the phone rang. 

“Caller ID says it’s Donna Way,” Frank said. “That’s your mom, right?” 

“I’m sure it’s not important.” 

“What if it is?” 

“She’ll call again later if it’s _really_ important, but I can’t imagine any phone call that would be more important than you.” Gerard kissed Frank again and then asked, “Now, where were we?” 

Frank kissed back, but only a few seconds later, the phone rang again. 

“You should probably answer the phone, Gee,” Frank said as he pulled away from Gerard. 

Gerard sighed. “Fine,” he said as he got off of the couch and picked up the phone. However, all he could hear were loud sobbing noises. “Mom?” he said. “Is everything okay?” 

“It’s Grandma,” Gerard’s mom said. “I’ve been trying to call you for the last two hours because she...she passed away today.” 

Gerard didn’t know what to say. His vision blurred with tears as he collapsed back onto the couch, his heart filled with sorrow and mourning. He thought of everything she’d done for him - how she’d taught him to sing, how she’d bought the band their first van, how she’d supported him from the very beginning. 

And now, she was gone. 

His grandmother had done so much for him, but what had he done for her? He’d hardly seen her in the last year of her life. He’d known that she was sick, and he’d gone on tour anyways. He’d abandoned her when she needed him most. He could have been a better grandson, but he wasn’t. 

His mother half-heartedly attempted to console him, but it was clear that she was grieving too. Before long, she hung up, leaving Frank as his only comfort. However, not even having Frank’s arms wrapped around him could ease his grief, his pain, his self-hatred. 

Two hours. 

His mother had been trying to call him for two hours. 

Two hours ago, he had been on stage instead of by his grandmother’s side, supporting her as she drew her last breath. 

Two hours ago, they were playing Drowning Lessons. 

Gerard got up from the couch, poured himself a drink, and downed it in a single gulp in a desperate attempt to drown his sorrows. This was undeniable proof that Drowning Lessons was cursed, but Gerard couldn’t think about that right now, not when the woman who’d helped him achieve his dreams was dead.

He hadn’t even gotten the chance to say goodbye.


	5. Chapter 5

The show was over, and the band was just about to step offstage when Gerard stumbled toward the microphone and screamed, “WE’RE PLAYING DROWNING LESSONS!” 

The fans cheered, but Frank looked back at his boyfriend, confused. “I thought we weren’t going to play that song anymore,” he whispered. 

Gerard was barely listening. He was drunk, he supposed, and he couldn’t even remember how many different pills he’d taken before the show. It had been nearly six months since his grandmother’s death, but knowing that she was gone forever still hurt like hell. The drugs were just enough to numb the pain, just enough to keep him from falling apart completely. 

“We’re going to play it,” he said. “I don’t care if it’s cursed. We’re going to fucking play Drowning Lessons.” 

Frank turned to Ray, Mikey, and Matt and shrugged, and soon, they all began to play. Gerard moved to the beat, wondering what would happen next. Drowning Lessons was cursed, after all. Something had to go wrong. 

Maybe the equipment would fail. Maybe the microphone would cut out. Maybe the stage lights would go dark. Maybe the building would collapse. Maybe he’d drop dead.

Just for a second, Gerard thought things might be better off that way. 

“It’s the tearing sound of love notes, coming out these rusted windows…”

“Gerard,” Ray muttered as he continued to play. “Those aren’t the lyrics.” 

“Really?” Gerard said, confused. He then sang, “This night, walk the dead, in a solitary style…” 

“Still not it.” 

“Life is but a dream for the dead!” Gerard screamed. “And well I, I won’t go down by myself, but I’ll go down with my friends!” 

Ray simply sighed and shook his head, while Frank and Mikey switched to playing You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison in a desperate attempt to salvage the performance. Gerard yelled incoherently into the microphone, screaming until his voice was raspy and hoarse, waiting for the Drowning Lessons curse to come and take him, just like it had taken his grandmother. He’d die in a blaze of glory, in a hail of bullets. 

Yet, much to his frustration, he kept on living. One of Ray’s guitar strings snapped, and no matter how hard he tried, Gerard couldn’t remember the lyrics to Drowning Lessons, but he was still here, still standing onstage in front of a crowd of bewildered fans. He closed his eyes, wishing that he was somewhere else, anywhere else. 

Eventually, the song ended, and as soon as they made it backstage, Gerard collapsed onto the floor. As the room spun around him, he heard the voices of his bandmates. 

“We can’t play Drowning Lessons again,” Ray said. 

“Yeah, it’s obviously cursed,” Mikey said. 

“It’s Gerard’s fault, really,” Matt said. “He was the one who thought it would be a good idea to play Drowning Lessons as the last song of the show.” 

“And then he was too drunk to remember which song that was!” Mikey exclaimed. 

“It wasn’t all his fault,” Ray argued. “My guitar string broke in the middle of the song. It sounded awful.” He sighed and then said, “Let’s just forget this ever happened and never play Drowning Lessons again.” 

All of a sudden, Gerard saw Frank crouching down next to him. “Gee, are you okay?” he asked. 

“What do you think, Frank?” he responded bitterly. He went back to staring at the ceiling, wondering why the drugs never worked, why he was still breathing, still alive. 

This was what rock bottom felt like.


	6. Chapter 6

Thirteen years had gone by since My Chemical Romance had last played Drowning Lessons, but after everything that had happened, it felt like it had been far longer. 

They released two more albums after Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, both of which took their career to new heights. They went on tour many times, seeing the world through the windows of tour buses and jet planes. They were the saviors of the broken, the beaten, and the damned, but in the end, they knew it couldn’t last. 

On March 22, 2013, My Chemical Romance broke up. 

After it was all over, the band members went their separate ways, reflecting on their time with the band, starting up solo projects, creating art without their bandmates for the first time in years. Gerard made a solo album, he wrote the comic books he’d always wanted to write, and best of all, he finally kicked his addictions for good. For the first time in a long time, he felt happy and healthy. 

But something wasn’t quite right. He missed writing songs. He missed performing every night, dancing along to the beat of the drum, listening to the roar of the crowd. More than anything, he missed Ray, Mikey, and Frank. He missed making art with them, and when he talked to Frank about it one night, he felt exactly the same way. 

So they decided to give the band another try. 

Gerard, Frank, Mikey, and Ray were all sitting in a practice room, plotting their eventual return. They hadn’t told anyone that they’d gotten back together yet - right now, the reunion was for the four of them, and the four of them alone - but they knew that someday, they’d take the stage once again. 

“We should play something we’ve never played live before,” Gerard suggested. “Like Mastas of Ravenkroft.” 

“I’d rather play Make Room,” Ray said. 

“Boy Division is better than Make Room,” Frank said. 

“What about Drowning Lessons?” Mikey suggested. 

The rest of the band looked at Mikey like he was crazy. “What?” Mikey said. “It’s a good song, and we haven’t played it in a while.” 

“You know why we don’t play Drowning Lessons,” Ray said. 

“It’s cursed,” Frank added. 

“I know, but it’s been a long time,” Mikey said. “Maybe it’s not cursed anymore.” 

“I don’t think that’s how curses work.” 

“Come on, Frank. What’s the worst that could happen?” 

“Last time we played it, Gerard forgot the lyrics, and the time before that, your grandmother died!”

“I still don’t think she died because we played Drowning Lessons,” Mikey said. She was sick for a long time before that.” 

“And I still don’t think we should take our chances with that song,” Frank said. “I remember how depressed Gee was after she died, and well...I just don’t ever want to see him like that again.” 

Gerard stayed quiet as his boyfriend and his brother continued to argue about the Drowning Lessons curse. It had been a long time since he’d played Drowning Lessons - hell, it had been a long time since he’d even listened to the song. Most of his memories from the Bullets tour were nothing but hazy fragments now, but he still remembered the day of his grandmother’s death with perfect clarity. Maybe the curse was gone now, but he was afraid of what might happen if it wasn’t. 

“How about this?” Ray said. “We’ll do a show for just our friends and family, and if you guys really want to play Drowning Lessons, we can do it then, but we should play a different song for our big return show.” 

“That sounds good,” Mikey said. 

“Yeah, I guess I can live with that,” Frank said. 

“Me too,” Gerard said. “Can we please play Mastas of Ravenkroft at the return show though?”

“Maybe,” Ray said as he played a few notes on his guitar. 

For now, that was good enough. 

Eventually, the day came. Frank, Gerard, Mikey, and Ray had set up a makeshift stage in Ray’s backyard, and they’d invited some of their favorite people in the world to hear them play for the first time since the breakup. Gerard looked toward the people in the audience, toward his sister-in-law, his ex-wife, his two nieces, his daughter. None of them knew him when he was young. None of them had been around when the band was just starting. None of them had heard Drowning Lessons live before. 

Gerard was terrified, but he didn’t let that stop him. 

“So we’ve only played this next one live a handful of times before,” he said into the microphone as Frank, Ray, and Mikey re-tuned their instruments. “And that’s because something goes wrong every time we try. We think it might be cursed, but Mikey likes this song, and we thought you guys might like it too. It’s called Drowning Lessons.” 

There was a smattering of polite applause, and Gerard looked back at Ray, Mikey, and Frank: the three people who had always stood by his side, no matter what. If he had to play a cursed song, at least he was doing it with them. 

All of a sudden, they started to play, and between the pounding bass and the roaring guitars, it sounded incredible. A few bars later, Gerard opened his mouth to sing. 

“Without a sound, I took her down…” 

Playing Drowning Lessons live again was nothing short of magical. They were all far better musicians than they were when they’d last played the song over a decade ago, and their newfound finesse made the song sound even better. They’d had plenty of ambition when they recorded their debut album, but now, they had the skills and the showmanship to match. Gerard listened to his bandmates, mesmerized by the band’s sound. Drowning Lessons had never sounded so powerful, so thrilling before. 

When the song was finally over, Gerard struck a pose, and the audience cheered loudly. He could hardly believe it. Nothing had gone wrong.

He looked out into the audience, and he saw his daughter smiling. Gerard smiled back, and he saw a look of pure joy etched across her tiny face. 

At last, the curse was lifted.


End file.
